May 1, CALL Learning Meeting – Register Now

Join Climate Action for Lifelong Leaners on May 1 at 10:00 a.m. on Zoom for an opportunity to learn about and discuss Climate change adaptation and resilience:

What is to be done?

Activists rightly prioritize reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the fight against climate change. However successful we are in reducing emissions,

climate change is already endangering us and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future. We need to understand these dangers and advocate for action that makes our communities less vulnerable. Dr. Jennifer Penney will fill us in on some ways to make our communities more adaptive and resilient and what the federal and provincial governments are doing (or not doing) to get us there.

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER:

You will receive an email confirmation with your personal Zoom link to join the meeting.

Strategy 101 Workshop

Date & Time: Apr 30, 2024 07:00 PM in Toronto

Hosted by: Le Hub (The Climate Justice Organizing HUB)

The goal of this workshop is to equip participants with frameworks and decision-making tools that help guide groups collaboratively towards creating solid strategies.

This interactive workshop is not just a primer on the principles of solid strategy, but also a session meant to help participants find a balance between the desire for a collaborative, democratic decision making process and the need to focus and narrow down to create successful strategic goals.

This workshop was created because this topic has been requested often by climate justice organizers. The curriculum material was drawn from a collaboration between several senior movement thinkers including Amara Possian and Tom Liacas, and also draws on sources and wisdom from many other folks in the Momentum Training Community, Mobilisation Lab and Blueprints for Change.

Register here!

The Climate Justice Organizing HUB is a project of the Small Change Fund.

Engagement Organizing 101: A Series of Six Two-Hour Sessions on People Power and Your ENGO

Hosted by: Sustainability Network

Fri 5 Apr 2024 1:00 PM - Fri 10 May 2024 3:00 PM EDT

Online, Zoom

Dates: Dates: April 5, 12, 19, 26 and May 3, 10, 2024 from 1-3 PM ET

Time: 1:00 to 3:00 PM ET

Cost: $75

All registrants will be provided with a link to the recording and the presentation slides following each session. Please note, all participants will receive a confirmation email from TicketTailor with a link to join the meetings in Zoom.

Engagement organizing (EO) involves building your organization’s people power by identifying and recruiting people who share your organization’s interests, cultivating relationships with them, and supporting them in specific ways to volunteer, donate and advocate for your cause.

It allows organizations to scale up their efforts with the help of digital technologies and a shift in management roles to support ever greater levels of volunteer participation and leadership. The result is resilient, robust and effective organizations that operate at a level much higher than those who follow conventional organizing approaches.

Through EO 101, participants will learn the basics of engagement organizing, how to help your organization to become a people-powered organization and how to apply EO in your day-to-day work life while advancing the mission of your organization.

Session #1: Introduction to Engagement Organizing - April 5, 1:00 to 3:00 PM ET

This session offers the big picture of EO and why we need to organize. This session will highlight several success stories in the environmental movement. You will learn the importance of storytelling when transitioning to people power organizations.

Session #2: Engagement Organizing Elements - April 12, 1:00 to 3:00 PM ET

You will learn about EO elements and link the mission and vision of your organization to engagement organizing methodology. We will cover how to develop effective Theory of Change and engagement pyramids. The basic elements of engagement pyramids and paths such as recruitment, mobilization and distributed leadership that allow your organization to meaningfully engage people, gain more power that eventually leads to change will be introduced.

Session #3: Recruitment and Mobilization - April 19, 1:00 to 3:00 PM ET

In this session we will focus on the recruitment and mobilization levels of the pyramid and develop lists, strategies and paths associated within these levels of engagement.

Session #4: Distributed Leadership - April 26, 1:00 to 3:00 PM ET

You will dive into the distributed leadership potential within your organizations, particularly focused on volunteers. We will unpack the volunteers and leadership power base, volunteers’ stewardship and long-term engagement. We will also touch on the readiness for a culture shift and its barriers.

Session #5: Pathways and People Management, Advocacy - May 3, 1:00 to 3:00 PM ET

Participants will learn about how to use and track the power within their organization to influence decision-makers. Some of the topics include importance and strategies of tracking your supporters, how to handle and use data, databases, and the digital environment for change, how to integrate digital tools, and how to set milestones, metrics, and dashboards. In this session, participants will be able to tie everything together and see the connection between the EO methodology, people power and how they can advance their organization and their cause through EO.

Session #6: Tying It All Together and Where to Go From Here - May 10, 1:00 to 3:00 PM ET - Voluntary session

This session is for participants who are interested to share their engagement organizing plans with the rest of the class and to get feedback from the instructor and colleagues.

‍OUR PRESENTER
The series will be delivered by Renata Woodward who is a seasoned land trust practitioner who has spent most of her career working to protect the environment. She has worked as an executive director with the Nature Trust of New Brunswick and is currently executive director of the Alliance of Canadian Land Trusts. She is a consultant who helps non-governmental organizations with engagement organizing, capacity building, fund-raising, land conservation, and policy development. She is a progressive leader, effective decision-maker, visionary, great communicator, and manager who can display sound judgment and bring the best out of a team of passionate and diverse people. She continues to work on advancing environmental protection in Canada. She's lived, studied, and worked in Czechia, England, British Columbia, Newfoundland and Labrador, New Brunswick, Ontario, and Quebec. ‍

Webinar Series - $75

Contact the event organiser

Since 2010, we have been training Canadian volunteers to lobby for Climate Income. The facts are clear that

1. Carbon pricing is a keystone policy for reducing GHGs

2. Giving the money back to the people reduces income inequality

3. Other policies are needed to reach liveable world for all.

We are getting ready to lobby June 3 and June 4 and throughout June. In the spring of 2024 our volunteers have chosen to lobby for the following:

1. Getting Canada ready for Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanisms - Improvements to the Greenhouse Gas Pollution Pricing Act

2. Climate Aligned Finance - Strong Clean Energy Regulations and regulations for caps in on emissions in the Oil and Gas sector

3. Strict limitations on advertising from fossil fuel companies akin to what was done with tobacco

Learn how to talk about carbon pricing like a pro, how do fortify Canada's climate policies and how to work with others to build political will for a liveable world using our proven methodology.

Register Here

Register Here

Many young people face barriers and challenges on the journey through high school and onto further education and/or employment. Having basic needs met, positive relationships with trusted adults, access to an array of well-coordinated support services and relationships with adult allies as well as alternative pathways to a desired future can inspire hope and offer the encouragement needed to transform one’s trajectory.

Communities Building Youth Futures (CBYF) is a national network of 20 small, rural, remote, and Indigenous communities that – individually and together – are on a learning journey to better understand barriers that young people face. Using the Collective Impact Framework, these initiatives mobilize and unite entire communities to work with young people to identify, prototype and co-develop new approaches to promote youth success.  

In this webinar, the Tamarack Institute's CBYF Director Angelina Pelletier joins Sylvia Cheuy to share highlights and insights from the first four years of CBYF’s learning network.

More about Communities Building Youth Futures (CBYF)

In partnership with young people and informed by their insights and needs, each CBYF community has mobilized multiple sectors and engaged its entire community to create new opportunities and prototype innovative initiatives that provide young people with the supports they need to complete high school and build plans for bright futures. The insights and successes achieved for youth within each of the CBYF local communities are inspiring AND they are only part of the story. These 20 communities have not only developed a deeper understanding of youth needs and solutions, but they have also been catalysts for systems-level impacts that are changing our collective understanding of what young people need to thrive; what’s important about how that is done; what communities can accomplish by working together; and, how actors in youth serving systems can better promote youth success.

Join us for a dynamic conversation about what it takes – and what becomes possible – when whole communities are mobilized to creatively reimagine new solutions with and for young people.    

Learn More: 

• Learn more about Communities Building Youth Futures (CBYF)

• Discover the member communities of the CBYF National Learning Network 

• Read CBYF’s Community Innovation Fund Impact Report

• Explore the Tamarack article Interconnected Practices for Community and Systems Impact

Green 13 and PHP4 Climate Action invite you to a discussion on heat pumps and more including selection and installation considerations.

It is that time of year, when we come together as a community for a Spring cleaning! Businesses, residents, local organizations and the City are working together to coordinate supplies, arrange garbage pick up and celebrating afterwards. 

Register Here

Sign up as an individual member and we can connect you with a crew or you can sign up your own crew. We're providing free cleaning supplies (garbage bags, gloves) and a wrap party invite to all the Clean up Crews. 

Pick up supplies: Saturday, April 20, 10am to 2pm. Ralph Thornton Community Centre, 765 Queen Street East 

Wrap Party for Clean Up Crews: Saturday, April 20, 1-2 pm. Ralph Thornton Community Centre, 765 Queen Street East.

NOTE: We are also arranging for specialized crews to assist with hazards. This will be explained when you pick-up supplies.

Engagement Organizing 101: A Series of Six Two-Hour Sessions on People Power and Your ENGO

Hosted by: Sustainability Network

Fri 5 Apr 2024 1:00 PM - Fri 10 May 2024 3:00 PM EDT

Online, Zoom

Dates: Dates: April 5, 12, 19, 26 and May 3, 10, 2024 from 1-3 PM ET

Time: 1:00 to 3:00 PM ET

Cost: $75

All registrants will be provided with a link to the recording and the presentation slides following each session. Please note, all participants will receive a confirmation email from TicketTailor with a link to join the meetings in Zoom.

Engagement organizing (EO) involves building your organization’s people power by identifying and recruiting people who share your organization’s interests, cultivating relationships with them, and supporting them in specific ways to volunteer, donate and advocate for your cause.

It allows organizations to scale up their efforts with the help of digital technologies and a shift in management roles to support ever greater levels of volunteer participation and leadership. The result is resilient, robust and effective organizations that operate at a level much higher than those who follow conventional organizing approaches.

Through EO 101, participants will learn the basics of engagement organizing, how to help your organization to become a people-powered organization and how to apply EO in your day-to-day work life while advancing the mission of your organization.

Session #1: Introduction to Engagement Organizing - April 5, 1:00 to 3:00 PM ET

This session offers the big picture of EO and why we need to organize. This session will highlight several success stories in the environmental movement. You will learn the importance of storytelling when transitioning to people power organizations.

Session #2: Engagement Organizing Elements - April 12, 1:00 to 3:00 PM ET

You will learn about EO elements and link the mission and vision of your organization to engagement organizing methodology. We will cover how to develop effective Theory of Change and engagement pyramids. The basic elements of engagement pyramids and paths such as recruitment, mobilization and distributed leadership that allow your organization to meaningfully engage people, gain more power that eventually leads to change will be introduced.

Session #3: Recruitment and Mobilization - April 19, 1:00 to 3:00 PM ET

In this session we will focus on the recruitment and mobilization levels of the pyramid and develop lists, strategies and paths associated within these levels of engagement.

Session #4: Distributed Leadership - April 26, 1:00 to 3:00 PM ET

You will dive into the distributed leadership potential within your organizations, particularly focused on volunteers. We will unpack the volunteers and leadership power base, volunteers’ stewardship and long-term engagement. We will also touch on the readiness for a culture shift and its barriers.

Session #5: Pathways and People Management, Advocacy - May 3, 1:00 to 3:00 PM ET

Participants will learn about how to use and track the power within their organization to influence decision-makers. Some of the topics include importance and strategies of tracking your supporters, how to handle and use data, databases, and the digital environment for change, how to integrate digital tools, and how to set milestones, metrics, and dashboards. In this session, participants will be able to tie everything together and see the connection between the EO methodology, people power and how they can advance their organization and their cause through EO.

Session #6: Tying It All Together and Where to Go From Here - May 10, 1:00 to 3:00 PM ET - Voluntary session

This session is for participants who are interested to share their engagement organizing plans with the rest of the class and to get feedback from the instructor and colleagues.

‍OUR PRESENTER
The series will be delivered by Renata Woodward who is a seasoned land trust practitioner who has spent most of her career working to protect the environment. She has worked as an executive director with the Nature Trust of New Brunswick and is currently executive director of the Alliance of Canadian Land Trusts. She is a consultant who helps non-governmental organizations with engagement organizing, capacity building, fund-raising, land conservation, and policy development. She is a progressive leader, effective decision-maker, visionary, great communicator, and manager who can display sound judgment and bring the best out of a team of passionate and diverse people. She continues to work on advancing environmental protection in Canada. She's lived, studied, and worked in Czechia, England, British Columbia, Newfoundland and Labrador, New Brunswick, Ontario, and Quebec. ‍

Webinar Series - $75

Contact the event organiser

Growing our Movements: Panel & Fundraiser for the Groundswell Fund

Date & Time: Apr 18, 2024, 07:00 PM in Toronto

Register:

https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_7L5oNBNpSyqv5vLxTOKy7Q#/registration

Register now to join this conversation with three incredible social justice leaders, as we talk through some big questions:

• Why aren’t charity and philanthropy enough to overcome the interconnected crises of our time?

• How do we cultivate strong social movements, making powerful demands, led by the communities most impacted by oppression?

• Why are these movements often shut out from the resources of philanthropy? And what can we do about it?

Whether you’ve been thinking about these questions for years already, or they feel brand new - this webinar is for you! We’re deeply honoured to be in conversation with Desmond Cole, Mostafa Henaway, and Sarah Jama. They bring incredibly rich and complementary perspectives to this discussion, and we really hope you’ll join us to be a part of it.

Of course, this event itself is part of our answer to that third question: we need funding institutions that are truly by and for grassroots social movements, and Groundswell is exactly that!

This event isn’t simply about raising dollars - it is part of a long-standing redistributive justice tradition to shift the ways in which we think about power, privilege and change. By supporting and resourcing those most impacted by systems of oppression, we are committing to building a better future for all.

ACCESSIBILITY

Automated Zoom closed captions will be supported with designated CC monitors to catch and correct any mistakes. ASL interpretation will be available. Please flag any other accessibility needs in the registration form and an organizer will reach out to you directly.

Oversized Danger: Report on the lethal danger of pickups and large SUVs

Oversized Danger: Report on the lethal danger of pickups and large SUVs to pedestrians and cyclists

Hosted by: University of Toronto Mobility Network

Date and time: Thursday, April 18 · 12 - 3am EDT

Location:

Ontario Institute for Studies in Education

252 Bloor Street West Toronto, ON M5S 1V6

Eventbrite registration: https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/oversized-danger-report-on-the-lethal-danger-of-pickups-and-large-suvs-tickets-876726952917

Thursday, April 18, 2024

12 noon to 3 pm (light lunch served from 11:30 am)

OISE, Rm 2214

252 Bloor St. West

University of Toronto

This event is brought to you by the Coalition to Reduce Auto Size Hazards (C.R.A.S.H.), an initiative launched in August 2022 by an Ontario-wide coalition of 16 road safety and other community groups. The coalition is led by Advocacy for Respect for Cyclists (ARC), Bike Law Canada, Bike Windsor Essex, Community Bikeways (TCBC), Friends and Families for Safe Streets (FFSS), and Walk Toronto.

We believe everyone should be and should feel safe as they move about on public roads, whether for work, school, shopping, or recreation. In the context of today’s urgent problems—beginning with the climate crisis—this means ensuring people who travel on foot, bicycles, or mass transit can do so safely.

Based on current research, the report outlines the safety problems posed by the proliferating number of pickups and large SUVs on our roads and canvasses lessons and approaches from other jurisdictions in dealing with these over-sized and underregulated dangers. Our panellists will set out recommendations to federal, provincial, and municipal governments for effective measures to address the dangers posed by pickups and large SUVs to people walking and cycling.

Our recommendations for action are premised on an approach that prioritizes the safety of pedestrians, which includes virtually everyone at some point, and cyclists on public roads.

This panel discussion will be of interest to policy makers, advocates, the media, academics, and all who care about safe streets.

The report launch and symposium are supported by the Centre for Cities (University of Windsor) and the Mobility Network (University of Toronto).

Register Here

Join us for a timely webinar on the role of communities and residents in preparing for and responding to climate-related events. As climate change accelerates, the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events, such as wildfires, floods, and heatwaves, continue to rise, posing significant challenges to local governments and communities across the country.

The 2023 wildfire season was the worst ever recorded, with roughly 18.5 million hectares of Canadian land burned and extensive damage to communities, ecosystems, and infrastructure. The town of Celista, British Columbia, was one of the communities that experienced devastating impacts. Jim Cooperman, a prominent author and conservationist in the Shuswap community, will share firsthand insights and lessons learned from the 2023 fires when it comes to strengthening municipal-community collaboration in emergency response.

Meanwhile, in Ontario, the City of Mississauga teamed up with several partners including University of Waterloo to host an RU Ready Workshop and launch Climate Crisis Connect, a youth-led initiative dedicated to improving emergency preparedness in Mississauga through raising awareness and educating residents about the importance of emergency preparation. Ben Gallagher and Larissa Parekh with the City of Mississauga will share their experience collaborating with community partners for greater climate resilience.

As we look ahead to the upcoming summer, projections indicate that Canada may face another season of heightened wildfire activity, along with other climate-related extreme weather events. Municipalities and communities must prepare effectively and strengthen their collaboration to mitigate risks and ensure swift response and recovery efforts.

In this webinar, we’ll explore: 

• Lessons learned from the experiences of Celista, BC, and Mississauga, ON, when it comes to centering community and activating local resources where possible in emergency preparedness and response
  

• Strategies for improving collaboration between municipalities and communities in the face of extreme weather events 
  

• Best practices for engaging residents in emergency preparedness efforts and fostering a culture of resilience at the community level

Get-To-Know-Us circa the 3rd Wednesday of the Month

Join us and learn how you can help drive evidence-based and socially just climate action. We will highlight key moments in 2024 while keeping in mind our niche in the environmental movement and what happened in 2023. In 2024, the agenda has been revamped and now includes an introduction to the EnROADS policy simulator and a primer on redirecting financial flows.

How to convert to your time zone:
1. Calculating your conversion using the UTC times for your region.
2. When you save the Zoom event to your email calendar.
3. By going here:  https://dateful.com/time-zone-converter
4. Directly on the registration form on Zoom. Look near the bottom of the registration form where it says “Time” IN BLUE and change it to your time zone.

https://citizensclimate.earth/2024/02/26/ccis-get-to-know-us-calls/

Structure 101 Workshop

Date & Time: Apr 16, 2024 09:00 PM in Toronto

Hosted by: Le Hub (The Climate Justice Organizing HUB)

The goal of this workshop is to equip participants with decision-making reflections and frameworks that help them guide their groups towards establishing a group structure that lines up with the group’s purpose and Theory of Change.

In this workshop, we cover the inherent tensions between the rejection of hierarchy in most grassroots groups and the need for a functional and visible decision-making flow that will keep things moving and also help avoid group burnout. This workshop was created because this topic was often requested by climate justice organizers.

The curriculum material was drawn from a collaboration between several senior movement thinkers including Amara Possian and Tom Liacas, and also draws on sources and wisdom from many other folks in the Momentum Training Community, Mobilisation Lab and Blueprints for Change.

Register here!

The Climate Justice Organizing HUB is a project of the Small Change Fund.

Resource Movement's Praxis groups are small groups of people with wealth and/or class privilege who meet regularly to learn and reflect together around class privilege, the roots of inequality, and what we’re each doing about it!  

A Praxis group builds community and relationships, provides space to talk openly and honestly about often-taboo issues of wealth and class privilege, and supports you to set personal goals around leveraging privilege for social change.  

Check out our deeper “What is Praxis?” explanation here:
https://bit.ly/whatispraxis

WHERE? On Zoom, baby! (you’ll get the link when you register)

WHEN? (participants are strongly encouraged to attend all sessions):

• April 16, 2024: 7-9pm ET // 4-6pm PT (Introduction)

• April 30, 2024 : 7-9pm ET // 4-6pm PT (Money Stories pt 1)

• May 14, 2024 : 7-9pm ET // 4-6pm PT  (Class Privilege Patterns)

• May 28, 2024  : 7-9pm ET // 4-6pm PT (Class & Race)

• June 11, 2024 : 7-9pm ET // 4-6pm PT (Money Stories pt 2)

• June 25, 2024 : 7-9pm ET // 4-6pm PT (Redistribution Plans pt 1)

• July 9, 2024 : 7-9pm ET // 4-6pm PT (Moving Towards Action)

• July 23, 2024 : 7-9pm ET // 4-6pm PT (Redistribution Plans pt 2)

COST? Sliding scale! You are welcome to join praxis for free. If you have the capacity to contribute financially, we invite you to help cover the costs of organizing this program.

https://www.zeffy.com/en-CA/ticketing/80884d3b-0916-4214-8b21-3617abe9bf97

In the past two decades we have seen immense progress in clean technologies. The price of renewable energy, storage, and electric vehicles have all plummeted to parity, if not cheaper, than their fossil fuel alternatives. Despite this progress, emissions and temperatures continue to rise and so the question must be asked - what’s next?

The answer, as indicated by study after study, is to not look at science fiction for inspiration but rather history. Community centred action that addresses multiple challenges simultaneously has been shown to create deeper and more sustainable emission reductions while also addressing the systemic changes that we need to build a flourishing and climate-just future.

Join CSI Community Director Stefan Hostetter and Collective Impact Specialist Kathryn Tait as they introduce two aligned concepts, Multisolving and Collective Impact, and how the learnings from each can come together and be the foundation of the future we must build.

Register for this Session Here!

In this session participants will:

• Explore the concept of Multisolving, the implications of the research behind it, and see examples of it in action

• Learn about the Collective Impact approach and the key principles behind its success

• Be introduced to the Lighthouse Collective, a project that is centring these two approaches in climate action here in Toronto

About the Lighthouse Collective:
Formed out of a partnership between the Tamarack Institute, the City of Toronto, the Toronto Climate Action Network, Canadian Community Challenge, and CSI the Lighthouse Collective is building new pathways into the climate movement for residents across the city.

The Lighthouse Collective is launching on May 2nd with a concert at Lula Lounge. Grab your ticket here!

Start Point: Eglinton West Subway Station [Google Map]

End Point: 450 Dupont St (Creeds Coffee Bar) / Dupont Subway Station [Google Map]

Length: 5 km

Pace of hike: 3.5km per hour - Relaxed

Difficulty: Beginner

Dog-friendly: No

Family-friendly:(suitable for young people 17 and under) Yes

Stroller-friendly: (paved trails accessible for strollers) Yes

Join us for a fun hike where we'll walk and talk about climate action in Toronto!

The climate crisis is growing more urgent every year and Canada is warming, on average, at twice the global rate. That's why Let's Hike T.O. is excited to be offering this hike in collaboration with the Youth Climate Action in Toronto project. Everyone is welcome to attend, particularly youth who are interested in climate action! It is an opportunity to walk together while discussing what youth climate action could look like in Toronto.

As we walk through two of Toronto's beautiful ravines, hikers will take part in conversations discussing ideas for a Climate Hub or Hubs in the GTA to support youth work on climate action and justice. We want to connect people working on these issues across grassroots, educational, academic, municipal, non-profit, and recreational spaces. If you’re working on or dreaming about amplifying and supporting youth climate action in Toronto, come join this free hike and meet more collaborators!

This event is part of a series of in-person and online events that the Impact Lab at the University of Toronto is organizing as a part of the Youth Climate Action in Toronto project (or YCAT), funded by the City of Toronto and the University of Toronto Climate Positive Energy Initiative. The team is running a series of engagements and consultations to develop a Youth Climate Action Engagement Strategy that will be adopted by the City of Toronto. Each event invites participants to share their thoughts and ideas around their visions of and needs for a climate just future in the city of Toronto. These insights will be used to inform research and policy by the Impact Lab, the City of Toronto, and other program stakeholders.

The Youth Climate Action Toronto project is grateful to their partners for this event, the City of Toronto and the University of Toronto Climate Positive Energy Initiative.

Everyone and anyone is welcome, but Let's Hike T.O. has a particular focus on diversity and is keen to include newcomers, people of colour, and young adults aged 20-40.

Stick around for more conversations at Creed’s Coffee Bar after the hike! The hike has starting and ending points conveniently located near subway stations for easy public transit access.
Feel free to reach out to the Youth Climate Action in Toronto team at youthclimateactionintoronto@gmail.com or on Instagram @youthclimateactiontoronto if you have any questions!

We look forward to seeing you there!

What To Expect

Hike leader: Laura (she/her)

Registration fee: This is a FREE hike, funded by the City of Toronto and the University of Toronto Climate Positive Energy Initiative.

Limited tickets: This hike is restricted to 60 registrants. Tickets will be provided on a first-come, first-serve basis.

Pre-hike email: Registrants will receive additional details by email the day before the hike, such as what to bring on the day, what to wear, etc.

Weather precautions: The hike will take place regardless of rain, wind, or snow so please dress accordingly! We will only cancel or postpone the hike if weather conditions are considered extreme or dangerous, in which case registered hikers will be informed 48 hours in advance.

Questions? Email LetsHikeTO@gmail.com

https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/cedarvale-nordheimer-ravine-climate-action-hike-tickets-867062365877?aff=eemailordconf&ref=eemailordconf&utm_campaign=order_confirm&utm_medium=email&utm_source=eventbrite&utm_term=viewevent

The Financial Risk of Ignoring Indigenous Rights

Date & Time: Apr 12, 2024 06:00 PM in Toronto

Hybrid Event & FREE to Attend

In-person: Native Canadian Centre of Toronto, 16 Spadina Rd, Toronto

Zoom registration:

https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_wuIFanmMQP2vsdRX8OyyOg#/registration

Description:

Join Indigenous Climate Action on Friday, April 12 from 6-8 PM (EDT), for a free, hybrid panel discussion featuring Black and Indigenous panelists following their participation in the Royal Bank of Canada’s (RBC) Annual General Meeting (AGM).

RBC’s AGM is a major opportunity for shareholders and other interested parties to discuss the company's finances, policies, and plans for the future. Panelists will share their experiences and concerns regarding RBC's financing decisions involving projects affecting their lands and communities, discuss the realities of what they’re enduring at the hands of the fossil fuel industry, RBC’s financing of global human rights violations, and recapping their participation at the AGM, and present opportunities and next steps within the Indigenous Divestment movement. This panel discussion will be livestreamed on through a Zoom webinar and ICA’s Facebook account. A recording of the panel discussion will be available on our YouTube channel in the following days after this event.

Engagement Organizing 101: A Series of Six Two-Hour Sessions on People Power and Your ENGO

Hosted by: Sustainability Network

Fri 5 Apr 2024 1:00 PM - Fri 10 May 2024 3:00 PM EDT

Online, Zoom

Dates: Dates: April 5, 12, 19, 26 and May 3, 10, 2024 from 1-3 PM ET

Time: 1:00 to 3:00 PM ET

Cost: $75

All registrants will be provided with a link to the recording and the presentation slides following each session. Please note, all participants will receive a confirmation email from TicketTailor with a link to join the meetings in Zoom.

Engagement organizing (EO) involves building your organization’s people power by identifying and recruiting people who share your organization’s interests, cultivating relationships with them, and supporting them in specific ways to volunteer, donate and advocate for your cause.

It allows organizations to scale up their efforts with the help of digital technologies and a shift in management roles to support ever greater levels of volunteer participation and leadership. The result is resilient, robust and effective organizations that operate at a level much higher than those who follow conventional organizing approaches.

Through EO 101, participants will learn the basics of engagement organizing, how to help your organization to become a people-powered organization and how to apply EO in your day-to-day work life while advancing the mission of your organization.

Session #1: Introduction to Engagement Organizing - April 5, 1:00 to 3:00 PM ET

This session offers the big picture of EO and why we need to organize. This session will highlight several success stories in the environmental movement. You will learn the importance of storytelling when transitioning to people power organizations.

Session #2: Engagement Organizing Elements - April 12, 1:00 to 3:00 PM ET

You will learn about EO elements and link the mission and vision of your organization to engagement organizing methodology. We will cover how to develop effective Theory of Change and engagement pyramids. The basic elements of engagement pyramids and paths such as recruitment, mobilization and distributed leadership that allow your organization to meaningfully engage people, gain more power that eventually leads to change will be introduced.

Session #3: Recruitment and Mobilization - April 19, 1:00 to 3:00 PM ET

In this session we will focus on the recruitment and mobilization levels of the pyramid and develop lists, strategies and paths associated within these levels of engagement.

Session #4: Distributed Leadership - April 26, 1:00 to 3:00 PM ET

You will dive into the distributed leadership potential within your organizations, particularly focused on volunteers. We will unpack the volunteers and leadership power base, volunteers’ stewardship and long-term engagement. We will also touch on the readiness for a culture shift and its barriers.

Session #5: Pathways and People Management, Advocacy - May 3, 1:00 to 3:00 PM ET

Participants will learn about how to use and track the power within their organization to influence decision-makers. Some of the topics include importance and strategies of tracking your supporters, how to handle and use data, databases, and the digital environment for change, how to integrate digital tools, and how to set milestones, metrics, and dashboards. In this session, participants will be able to tie everything together and see the connection between the EO methodology, people power and how they can advance their organization and their cause through EO.

Session #6: Tying It All Together and Where to Go From Here - May 10, 1:00 to 3:00 PM ET - Voluntary session

This session is for participants who are interested to share their engagement organizing plans with the rest of the class and to get feedback from the instructor and colleagues.

‍OUR PRESENTER
The series will be delivered by Renata Woodward who is a seasoned land trust practitioner who has spent most of her career working to protect the environment. She has worked as an executive director with the Nature Trust of New Brunswick and is currently executive director of the Alliance of Canadian Land Trusts. She is a consultant who helps non-governmental organizations with engagement organizing, capacity building, fund-raising, land conservation, and policy development. She is a progressive leader, effective decision-maker, visionary, great communicator, and manager who can display sound judgment and bring the best out of a team of passionate and diverse people. She continues to work on advancing environmental protection in Canada. She's lived, studied, and worked in Czechia, England, British Columbia, Newfoundland and Labrador, New Brunswick, Ontario, and Quebec. ‍

Webinar Series - $75

Contact the event organiser

Protest RBC’s AGM

Date & time: Thursday, April 11th 

Time: 10am

Location: Gather at 644 Dixon Rd, Etobicoke

On April 11, 2024, stand in solidarity with Indigenous Land Defenders resisting projects funded by RBC. We will be rallying outside RBC's Annual General Meeting in Etobicoke!

RBC is complicit in human rights abuses and genocide at home and around the world. This includes the Coastal GasLink pipeline violating Wet’suwet’en rights, tar sands extraction causing devastating health impacts, and weapons and surveillance technology used in the genocide in Palestine. They profit from land theft and war, ecocide and genocide.

RSVP to take action against RBC - Canada’s largest financier of genocide and climate chaos!

RSVP: https://you.leadnow.ca/events/agm-rally

Getting there: Meet us there, or register for a spot on one of our buses available from downtown Toronto: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScheMYE9f8KrW1MG1UmMtQfvRtwhoGkKcJm5HcHpjGx1hX2Og/viewform

More info: https://www.instagram.com/p/C5Wvs7YP3zK/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA%3D%3D

Anti-Oppression and Intersectionality 101 Workshop

Hosted by: Le Hub (The Climate Justice Organizing HUB)

Date & Time: Apr 10, 2024 09:00 PM  in Toronto

The goal of this workshop is to equip participants with foundational concepts and tools that help guide groups to develop and uphold anti-oppressive practices in group life.

Topics include environmentalism in the context of settler colonialism and how to be an effective ally in the climate movement.

Register here!

The Climate Justice Organizing HUB is a project of the Small Change Fund.

Energy for People Not Profit - Stop Bill 165

Hosted by: Environmental Defence

Date: Wednesday April 10th, 2024

Time: 7:00-8:30 PM EST

Location: Zoom

Register: https://act.environmentaldefence.ca/page/146476/event/1?

Enbridge's Ontario customers can expect to pay an additional $120 per year on their energy bill. This is because the Ford Government has sided with Enbridge Gas, subjecting ratepayers to foot the bill for new pipelines to new homes. 

The Ontario Energy Board (OEB), an independent authority that works to keep energy costs down, decided it is the developers who should pay for new pipelines to new homes - not Ontarians. 

This decision panicked Enbridge and they complained to the Ontario government. Premier Ford, instead of prioritizing affordability for Ontarians, has once again sided with big business and sprawl developers by presenting Bill 165 which aims to overrule the OEB’s attempt to protect Ontarians from subsidizing Enbridge’s projects. 

 Join Environmental Defence, Ontario Climate Emergency Campaign, Seniors for Climate Action Now, Hamilton 350, and Climate Fast to discuss the details and impacts of Bill 165 and how you can join the movement trying to keep energy bills from rising. 

After discussing the details of Bill 165, the last half hour of the event will be dedicated to coordinating local efforts across Ontario to speak up for energy affordability. Hear how local groups are taking action against Bill 165 and join their efforts.

On April 10, join us for a Massey Dialogues that will delve into what Canada is doing on the plastics front with a focus on extended producer responsibility, Canada’s ban on single-use items, the myth of recycling, and the international agreement on plastic pollution currently being negotiated as part of UNEP. We will have three panelists, one each from academia, industry, and government, joining us for these discussions.

The panel will begin at 3:30, followed by an audience Q&A and a reception.

Panelists bios:

MP Julie Dabrusin – Policy Panelist

Julie Dabrusin is the Member of Parliament for Toronto-Danforth, and has been since 2015. Ms. Dabrusin is the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Environment and Climate Change, and Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Energy and Natural Resources. Parliamentary Secretary Dabrusin has previously advocated for a ban on single-use plastic items in Canada, and also helps lead Canada’s Green Building Strategy and Zero Plastic Waste by 2030 initiatives.

Jo-Anne St. Godard – Industry Panelist

Jo-Anne St. Godard has served as Executive Director of Canada’s premier environmental non-governmental organization, Circular Innovation Council (formerly Recycling Council of Ontario), since 2001. She has over 20 years of experience in the areas of public policy design, corporate strategy and compliance, research and pilot innovations designed to accelerate Canada’s transition toward a circular economy. Jo-Anne has worked with senior levels in both government and business, facilitating unique private and public sector partnerships that advance policies and practices that deliver on carbon emissions and waste reduction objectives. 

Dr. Chelsea Rochman – science panelist 

Dr. Chelsea Rochman is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Toronto. Dr. Rochman is a world-renowned expert on plastic pollution. She has studied the sources, fate and ecological implications of plastic pollution for multiple decades. She is also the Co-Founder of the University of Toronto Trash Team, an organization that strives to increase waste literacy while reducing plastic pollution in the local community.  

Alice (Xia) Zhu – Moderator

Alice Zhu is a PhD Candidate at the University of Toronto studying the sources, transport, and fate of plastic pollution in the global ocean with an interest in translating science into policy. She is the recipient of a Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship and was named a Top 30 Under 30 Sustainability Leader by Corporate Knights in 2023 for her research excellence and environmental leadership. Alice is an alumnus of Massey College.  

We want to thank alum Alice Zhu and Junior Fellows Alison D’Cruz and Mohaddeseh Abdolhosseini for their leadership on this event.

This event will be recorded and livestreamed to our YouTube Channel.

Please register to attend: https://www.masseycollege.ca/events/massey-dialogues-plastics-policy-in-canada/

Fossil Fools Day

In solidarity with Indigenous land defenders

Date: Saturday, April 6th, 2024

Location: Find a Fossil Fools Day event near you here!

RBC is complicit in human rights abuses and genocide at home and around the world. This includes the Coastal GasLink pipeline violating Wet’suwet’en rights, tar sands extraction causing devastating health impacts, and weapons and surveillance technology used in the genocide in Palestine. They profit from land theft and war, ecocide and genocide.

RSVP to take action against RBC - Canada’s largest financier of genocide and climate chaos!

Engagement Organizing 101: A Series of Six Two-Hour Sessions on People Power and Your ENGO

Hosted by: Sustainability Network

Fri 5 Apr 2024 1:00 PM - Fri 10 May 2024 3:00 PM EDT

Online, Zoom

Dates: Dates: April 5, 12, 19, 26 and May 3, 10, 2024 from 1-3 PM ET

Time: 1:00 to 3:00 PM ET

Cost: $75

All registrants will be provided with a link to the recording and the presentation slides following each session. Please note, all participants will receive a confirmation email from TicketTailor with a link to join the meetings in Zoom.

Engagement organizing (EO) involves building your organization’s people power by identifying and recruiting people who share your organization’s interests, cultivating relationships with them, and supporting them in specific ways to volunteer, donate and advocate for your cause.

It allows organizations to scale up their efforts with the help of digital technologies and a shift in management roles to support ever greater levels of volunteer participation and leadership. The result is resilient, robust and effective organizations that operate at a level much higher than those who follow conventional organizing approaches.

Through EO 101, participants will learn the basics of engagement organizing, how to help your organization to become a people-powered organization and how to apply EO in your day-to-day work life while advancing the mission of your organization.

Session #1: Introduction to Engagement Organizing - April 5, 1:00 to 3:00 PM ET

This session offers the big picture of EO and why we need to organize. This session will highlight several success stories in the environmental movement. You will learn the importance of storytelling when transitioning to people power organizations.

Session #2: Engagement Organizing Elements - April 12, 1:00 to 3:00 PM ET

You will learn about EO elements and link the mission and vision of your organization to engagement organizing methodology. We will cover how to develop effective Theory of Change and engagement pyramids. The basic elements of engagement pyramids and paths such as recruitment, mobilization and distributed leadership that allow your organization to meaningfully engage people, gain more power that eventually leads to change will be introduced.

Session #3: Recruitment and Mobilization - April 19, 1:00 to 3:00 PM ET

In this session we will focus on the recruitment and mobilization levels of the pyramid and develop lists, strategies and paths associated within these levels of engagement.

Session #4: Distributed Leadership - April 26, 1:00 to 3:00 PM ET

You will dive into the distributed leadership potential within your organizations, particularly focused on volunteers. We will unpack the volunteers and leadership power base, volunteers’ stewardship and long-term engagement. We will also touch on the readiness for a culture shift and its barriers.

Session #5: Pathways and People Management, Advocacy - May 3, 1:00 to 3:00 PM ET

Participants will learn about how to use and track the power within their organization to influence decision-makers. Some of the topics include importance and strategies of tracking your supporters, how to handle and use data, databases, and the digital environment for change, how to integrate digital tools, and how to set milestones, metrics, and dashboards. In this session, participants will be able to tie everything together and see the connection between the EO methodology, people power and how they can advance their organization and their cause through EO.

Session #6: Tying It All Together and Where to Go From Here - May 10, 1:00 to 3:00 PM ET - Voluntary session

This session is for participants who are interested to share their engagement organizing plans with the rest of the class and to get feedback from the instructor and colleagues.

‍OUR PRESENTER
The series will be delivered by Renata Woodward who is a seasoned land trust practitioner who has spent most of her career working to protect the environment. She has worked as an executive director with the Nature Trust of New Brunswick and is currently executive director of the Alliance of Canadian Land Trusts. She is a consultant who helps non-governmental organizations with engagement organizing, capacity building, fund-raising, land conservation, and policy development. She is a progressive leader, effective decision-maker, visionary, great communicator, and manager who can display sound judgment and bring the best out of a team of passionate and diverse people. She continues to work on advancing environmental protection in Canada. She's lived, studied, and worked in Czechia, England, British Columbia, Newfoundland and Labrador, New Brunswick, Ontario, and Quebec. ‍

Webinar Series - $75

Contact the event organiser

We invite you to attend our event "Pathways to Sustainability for Buildings: Thermal Networks" on Thursday, March 28 at 7:30pm.  This is the third in our series of discussions focusing on thermal energy.  

Thermal energy networks, often called district energy, can be an efficient means of delivering climate-friendly heating and cooling. These networks use safe and stable renewable energy that can be derived from sources as diverse as geothermal, wastewater systems, bodies of water, and energy-intensive buildings. 

Our guests are Peter Tabuns, MPP for Toronto-Danforth and opposition critic for Energy and Climate Action, and John Stephenson, co-founder of the Boltzmann Institute. 

The discussion will explore the use of thermal energy networks as a pathway to sustainability for buildings. Topics will include:    

• District energy versus air source heat pumps 

• Demands on the electrical grid and their financial implications  

• Ideas to improve regulatory and financial frameworks

A Q&A follows the presentations.

Tell your friends!

Bios 

Peter Tabuns has served as Toronto-Danforth’s MPP for more than fifteen years and served as the Ontario NDP’s interim leader in 2022 and early 2023. Peter remains the opposition critic for Energy and Climate Action. His earlier roles as Greenpeace Canada’s Executive Director and Jack Layton’s Senior Climate Advisor informPeter’s approach to climate issues. Peter also served seven years as a City Councillor in Toronto where he chaired the Board of Health and led the efforts to set up the City’s energy efficiency initiative for commercial buildings, the Better Buildings Partnership.

John Stephenson co-founded the Boltzmann Institute in 2022. The Boltzmann Institute’s mission is to reduce harmful emissions from human energy use through research and education.   Previously, as Director of Project Development for FVB Energy Inc. (2001-2016) he helped develop business cases for district energy systems across Canada. This resulted in the construction of more than two dozen new district energy systems in Vancouver, Calgary, Hamilton, Markham, Toronto’s Regent Park, Oshawa’s Ontario Tech, and the conversion of steam systems to hot water in Ottawa. Prior to that John was in business development with Toronto Hydro and, earlier, with Ontario Hydro.  He was also the Toronto West chapter leader for Citizens Climate Lobby.  

The Boltzmann Institute is a non-profit Canadian organization aiming to contribute research and education towards securing climate neutrality by 2050, initially focusing on thermal energy use (i.e. heating and cooling) buildings.  The Boltzmann Institute is organizing a study tour cruise of eleven district energy systems in northern Europe from May 24-June 8, 2024. For more information, here is the link: https://bit.ly/3x0G89i  

Toronto East End Climate Collective (TEECC)

The Toronto East End Climate Collective (TEECC) is a non-partisan group of individuals working to understand the causes of the climate crisis and advocating for constructive responses. We host guest speakers, analyze public policy, participate in public forums and maintain a dialogue with local representatives on these issues.

Previous events in our series covered "Geothermal in Multi-Family Buildings" and "Thermal Energy Networks for Buildings". See our link to the TEECC YouTube Channel for recordings of both events: YouTube https://bit.ly/3TDPEb3 

Here is a link to a short video from the International District Energy Association about district energy  video https://bit.ly/3VfEMBA 

The Problem and Promise of Peat

A night of learning, screenings, and discussion about the environmental power of peat and the impacts of mining it. Let's take some action!

Peat is powerful. Peatlands store twice as much carbon as all the world’s forests, according to the UN. But when mined for things like garden potting soil, those benefits are lost.

In celebration of World Water Day on March 22, non-profits Water Docs and Regenerating Toronto are co-hosting this event in anticipation of the upcoming gardening season. We will learn and discuss peat use in Ontario and why its continuing use is problematic for our climate and much more.

The evening will feature a screening of the 2023 film The Breathing Lands, other short film screenings, expert speakers* and information on alternatives to peat in gardening, as well as a connection to solutions and actions to take to help attendees make a difference, both locally and globally.

How are the immense bogs of the Hudson Bay lowlands in Ontario connected to the potting soil you use? How are they and the peatlands around the world connected to the carbon cycle, the water cycle, the very breath of the Earth? How are these intimately connected to Indigenous cultures? And how is the peat mining industry interrupting that precious cycle? What are the actual problems and promise of peat? Join us to get to the bottom of it all.

This event is a Community Town Hall Meeting, one of the pillars of the new #LaterNoMore environmental project created by Water Docs and co-presented with Regenerating Toronto. Food will be provided.

*Guest speakers and additional films to be announced

Date: Friday, Mar. 22, 2024 | World Water Day

Time: 6:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m.

Location: Swansea Town Hall, Lavinia Avenue, Toronto, ON, Canada. Parking available on site.

Registration: Pay what you can donation. Donations of $20 and up will receive a charitable tax receipt. Proceeds go to Water Docs and Regenerating Toronto, both registered environmental charities. Tickets at Eventbrite: https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/the-problem-and-promise-of-peat-tickets-849057873957?utm-campaign=social&utm-content=attendeeshare&utm-medium=discovery&utm-term=listing&utm-source=cp&aff=ebdsshcopyurl

Who Should Attend: Attendees who would benefit from this event include hobbyist gardeners, landscapers, outdoor enthusiasts, individuals looking to make a localised difference in the climate crisis and residents of the Bloor West Village neighbourhood and surrounding area. But of course, anyone interested is most welcome!

Water Docs Socials: Facebook: @waterdocs Twitter: @waterdocsff Instagram: @waterdocsff LinkedIn: @waterdocs